Ebrahimi
Coming back from Jerusalem the other day I was waiting on Bus 21 when I made a new friend. Bus 21 is an Arab bus route that only International Aid workers and Palestinians with special permits are allowed to travel on because it travels on certain roads and through a different checkpoint than the main Bethlehem checkpoint (if you try to travel on it without the right permits they will send you back…sometimes even if you do have the right permission). I sat down on the aisle seat and watched people trickle onto the fairly empty bus. Shortly, a boy no older than 8 walks on. He’s scoping out the vacant bus and jerks back a bit when he notices my blond presence. I smile and say marhaba “hello” and he proceeds to climb over me to sit in the window seat. A minute later, his mom gets on and is just as surprised as me to see her son grinning and sitting next to me. I smiled at her and we both kind of laugh as I try to make it obvious through the language barrier that no, I am not intending to abduct her son. Anyway, Ebrahimi was great. Through my broken Arabic we talked as the bus progressed onto Bethlehem. We collected more and more passengers until the bus became standing room only. In the aisle next to me was another young boy and his father. This kid had his pockets stuffedwith toys and was intensely playing, particularly with a flashlight and two light-up discs. Ebrahimi looked a bit jealous so I took out my cell phone (with a flashlight feature) and let him play with it. I’ve never had so much fun on a bus, especially when we went through the tunnels! We made goofy faces with the lights under our chins and the three of us just laughed and laughed until Ebrahimi had to get off the bus. That was sad, but then the other boy’s father told him to get in the seat next to me. haha. It was game time with the American! So much joy.
